Newton Veterinary Hospital May be more interested in selling uneccessary procedures than treating family pets newton New Jersey

Sick Pauli August 28, 2014

On August 12 my cat "Pauli" appeared lethargic and started walking with an unusual gate. I had treated him with perscribed antibiotics in the recent past for giardia when he had exhibited similar symptoms. I had his stool checked and found that there were no parasites in his system.

The next day I brought him to Newton Veterinary Hospital as he had developed more symptoms and it had become apparent that he required professional attention.

After pauli was examined by a tech I was introduced to Dr. Brasch who did a consultation and left me. About a half hour later the tech returned with the doctors estimate for care. There were two column of treatment. One listed the care for over one thousand dollars and the other for over eight hundred dollars. I told the tech that it was more than I could handle. He left and the doctor later returned and sold me a diluted version of the care plans explaining that there were less neccessary treatments that could be avoided. I agreed to this version of treatment.

The cat was taken away and about a half hour later the doctor returned and told me that he was having a difficult time getting the cat to cooperate with him and requested permission"without any expense to me" to "give him a little gas to relax him". I told the doctor that if I hold Pauli that the doctor could do whatever he needed to do, but he told me that he had professional pet handlers there and again, requested to use a little gas. I said okay.

About a half hour later the doctor came to the room where I was still waiting and told me that Pauli was having a slow recovery from the gas and asked me to go away for an hour to let Pauli recover. He requested my cell phone number"in case anything happens", I told him that I would be back in an hour, but he again requested my cell number, so I gave it to him and left.

I returned, paid my five hundred dollar bill, got Pauli back and went home.

After I was home for about an hour I recieved a phone call from the Newton Veterinary Hospital. I was told that they forgot to give Pauli the antibiotic andasked if I could return wwith him. I told them that I would not be able to return until the morning. She also said that the would recover the cost of the antibiotic to me for the inconvenience. She also asked how Pauli was doing and when I told her that he was lost and walking in circles she told me that it was a result of the sedation.

The next day I took him back to the vet. They gave him his antibiotic injection and took him away once again. The tech returned him stating that he was worse than yesterday. I settled my bill and left. Pauli was up and attempting to walk around in four hours.

Three days later Dr. Brasch called me to explain Pauli's test results. He said that there was inconclusive results Pauli had FIP and explaind that in most cases this was a terminal condition. He also stated that there was still one more test result that he was waiting for, and that he would parle that to me when it arrived.

Two week went by and I had not heard from Dr. Brash so I showed up to the Newton Veterinary Hospital to request a print out of the test results and a print out of the proceedures that were perfomed on Pauli.

The reports say that Pauli was "Tanked", went into respiratory arrest and given injections twice to revive him. None of this was made known to me at the time and I had been wondering what was wrong with Pauli for the past two weeks.

As Pauli is not deseased, as stated in the report print-outs, and seeing that he is still recovering (very slowly) it might also be likely that the diagnosis of FIP may be inaccurate and that the difficulties that Pauli and us are having with his recovery are related to possible brain damage from the unprofessional administration of sedatives that caused repiratory arrest. Considering Pauli's behavior and the strange circumstances regarding the backroom proceedures at the Newton Veterinary hospital and their forgetfulness about his antibiotic I feel that the trust that I placed in the Newton Veterinary Hospital was neglected as was the treatment that Pauli recived. All Pauli needed was an antibiotic injection and the Newton Veterinay Hospital failed to give him that, but did not fail to waste his health at the uneccessary expensive tests that revealed nothing. Pauli is still recovering, has difficulties maintaining balance, cannot jump up on a chair and does appear periodically confused, none of this has anything to do with FIP, however all are sympoms of brain damage.

None of this was what I paid for.